The present disclosure relates to a battery module including a cooling pin having fixing protrusions formed thereon.
Recently, as technical development and demands for mobile devices have increased, demands for rechargeable secondary batteries as energy sources are rapidly increasing, and thus more researches on the secondary batteries are being carried out to cope with such diverse demands. Also, the secondary batteries have attracted considerable attention as power sources for an electric vehicle (EV), a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV), and a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (Plug-In HEV), which have been proposed as solutions to air pollution and the like caused by existing gasoline and diesel vehicles that use fossil fuels.
Therefore, the electric vehicle (EV) capable of traveling using only a battery and the hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) using a battery in combination with an existing engine, have been developed, some of which have been commercialized. For the secondary batteries as power sources for EVs and HEVs, nickel metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries are commonly used. However, recent researches on using lithium secondary batteries having high energy density, high discharge voltage, and output stability are being actively carried out, some of which have reached commercialization.
When such secondary batteries are used in a device or an apparatus such as a vehicle power source and an electric power storage device, which require high capacity, the secondary batteries are used in the form of a battery cell assembly or a battery module in which a plurality of battery cells are arranged.
Generally, such a battery cell assembly or battery module includes constituents for cooling the battery cells, in order to maintain the stability of the battery by effectively removing a large amount of heat generated from the battery cells during the charging and discharging processes.
FIG. 1 is a schematic vertical cross-sectional view partially illustrating a structure of a related art battery module.
Referring to FIG. 1, a battery module 10 includes battery cells 11 and cooling pins 12.
The battery cells 11 are arranged in a state in which side surfaces thereof are adjacent to each other, and the cooling pins 12 are interposed between the battery cells 11.
A large amount of heat generated from the battery cells 11 are transferred to the cooling pins 12 interposed between the battery cells 11 and then dissipated.
However, when the battery module 10 having the above-described structure is used as a power source in a device such as an automobile that is frequently exposed to external impact and vibration, a coupling force between the battery cells 11 and the cooling pins 12 may be loosened due to the impact and vibration, and thus some battery cells 13 are separated from the battery module 10, thereby resulting in electrical disconnection.
Thus, there is a great need for technologies that can fundamentally solve the above-described limitations.